Tried on appeal for the murder of a postwoman which he firmly denies, Mamadou Diallo confided on Tuesday, at the bar, his “shame” at having fled after discovering the body, maintaining a version deemed incoherent by the prosecution. On December 19, 2008, the body of Catherine Burgod, with 28 stab wounds, was found in a rest room at the small postal agency in Montréal-la-Cluse (Ain). If investigators had long suspected the actor Gérald Thomassin, who lived just opposite and who had notably accused himself of the murder, the cards were reshuffled ten years later.
The national genetic fingerprint file (FNAEG) showed that the DNA taken from a bag near the body of the victim, so far unidentified, was that of Mamadou Diallo, then accused by an ex-girlfriend of having stolen his bank card
” I feel guilty “
Before the jurors of the Rhône Assize Court, the person concerned maintains with conviction his version of the facts. He confirms having gone to the post office that day, having “seen the body of the lady” then panicking. “Yes I’m afraid, yes I regret. I feel guilty” for not having raised the alarm, he assures, explaining “to speak from the heart”. “Plus I took money…”
Since his arrest, the man claims to have discovered the body of the killed postwoman and cannot explain his action when leaving: grabbing a wad of 400 euros. “I was in shock,” he repeats, traumatized by the vision of the bloodied victim. The president reminds him of “the tight timeline” between Catherine Burgod’s last sign of life, an SMS at 8:36 a.m., the discovery of the body by customers shortly after 9 a.m. and the fact that a total of nearly 2,500 euros were lost. stolen.
Under fire from the accusation, which repeatedly points to changes in the version as the interrogations progress, inconsistencies regarding his arrival time or his itinerary upon arrival and departure, his perfect knowledge of the places , still a decade after the events, Mamadou Diallo hammers home his line of defense.
Thomassin’s ghost
“I am innocent of the facts with which I am accused. (…) I was acquitted because I answered the questions,” he says, recalling the judgment of the first instance. And to once again regret the absence from the dock of Gérald Thomassin, who benefited from a dismissal of the case after having disappeared in August 2019 when he was to go to a confrontation in the office of the judge instruction in Lyon.
His family and loved ones provide him with unfailing support. “Friendly, helpful, empathetic”, the qualifiers they use towards Mamadou Diallo bear witness to this. “I don’t even have an ounce of doubt that he could have made such a gesture,” his brother assured the court on Tuesday. His partner, to whom he is religiously married, recognizes that “he sometimes lacked courage” towards her. “He already lied to me,” she said, while giving him her absolute support.